First report summarizes plane crash

The National Transportation Safety Board has posted a preliminary report on the June 27 plane crash that killed four people, but it offers no new information on the cause of the crash.

The three-paragraph report provides a brief synopsis describing the flight, subsequent search and discovery of the wreckage.

The plane was carrying two Daily Inter Lake reporters — Erika Hoefer, 27, and Melissa Weaver, 23 — along with two Missoula men: Brian Williams, 28, and the pilot, 25-year-old Sonny Kless.

The group, in a plane rented by Kless, took off from Kalispell City Airport just after 2 p.m. on June 27 for a sightseeing flight but did not return as planned.

The Lake and Sanders county sheriff’s offices carried out a search and located the wreckage in mountainous, timbered terrain 8.2 miles southwest of Perma on June 30.

The federal report said the plane was “substantially damaged” in the crash.

All four on board died as a result of “blunt force trauma,” according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the preliminary report:

“Initial radar data showed the airplane departing Kalispell and heading north over the Flathead National Forest, then traveling south along the east side of Flathead Lake. The last radar return was at 3:52 p.m., located in the vicinity of Dixon, at an altitude of about 300 feet above ground level.

“Witnesses reported seeing a blue-and-white single-engine airplane flying low over the Flathead River between Perma and Dixon around 4 p.m.”

Federal regulations set a minimum altitude of 500 feet for most flying. The crash site is about 80 miles from Kalispell.

Van McKenny, the federal safety agency’s lead investigator for the crash, said that a factual report will be released within 270 days and a final report that will include a probable cause for the crash would be released within a year.